In the key of Gee

Mellencamp bassist plays Constant Spring

Mellencamp bassist plays Constant Spring

November 24, 2009|By ANDREW S. HUGHES Tribune Staff Writer

Wear earplugs to see Jon E. Gee and The Gee Men on Saturday at Constant Spring in Goshen.Gee will be."I can't understand how you can play at the volumes I do and not (wear earplugs)," he says by telephone from his home in Indianapolis. "I'm pretty much an aggressive cat on the bass, which I've been told a thousand times. I've even been asked if I'm going to back off and become passive. I'm probably the loudest guy around. I love music at volumes where people can't talk."

Gee certainly has experience playing at loud volumes: For years, he played bass in Ted Nugent's band, although he's quick to assert that there are other bands in rock that are as loud or louder than the Motor City Madman.

"Ted's not as loud as people think," he says. "I'm not saying he's not loud, but he's not as loud as you think. He puts out that perception. … It's one of the most fun gigs I've ever had in my life. I think it's because Ted and I came from the same musical background. Him being a friend of Jimi Hendrix didn't hurt."

Since 1999, however, Gee has been the bass player in John Mellencamp's band, including for July 4's concert at Coveleski Stadium in South Bend with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and The Wiyos.

"John is a very groove-oriented cat," he says. "That's probably where we agree most. John wants his music not only to say something, but he wants it to feel good while it's saying it, and I would have to agree with that in any kind of musical style."

With The Gee Men, he plays originals and covers of such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Living Colour, Bill Withers, Cameo and Sly & the Family Stone and describes his originals as influenced by those bands and the '70s funk-rock band Mother's Finest.

"My own music, I call it hard rock with funk in it," he says. "I think that's pretty accurate. Most of my grooves are from '70s-era grooves with heavy guitar on top of it."

Gee and his band plan to record their debut CD in December.

As Mellencamp's bass player for the last decade, however, he's been on all of Mellencamp's albums during that period, including 2008's late-career classic, "Life Death Love and Freedom," which used Mississippi Delta blues, gospel, folk and traditional country music as the foundation for Mellencamp's direct, non-sentimental ruminations about the title's four topics.

"I wasn't sure if Mellencamp's fans would like it," Gee says about the album. "It wasn't that I didn't think it was a good album, but you always take a risk when you go in a different direction."

Since the album's release, Gee says, he's had good feedback from Mellencamp's fans.

"I think they didn't expect that from him," he says. "Anytime you go in a different musical direction, you have your die-hard fans who like what you were and they don't want you to go in different directions. I think all musicians should go in different directions. Not that you'll stay there, but I think you should try some new things."

Mellencamp, Gee says, collaborates with his band in the studio.

"This is just my interpretation: It's like being on a football field and John's the quarterback," he says. "He can't do your job for you, but he can tell you what direction he's going in."

The other band members, Gee says, also toss out ideas to each other.

"We're probably one of the few bands that still do that," he says. "A lot of the industry is, 'Here, do this.' We still collaborate and try things, and if it doesn't work, we try again. I think the biggest thing is getting John's vision because you're in John's band. If you can tap into that vision, then everybody's on the same page."

With his own band, however, Gee takes a different approach to teaching the musicians his songs.

"John is more of a songwriter and I'm more of a player," he says. "Because I'm a player, I have things a little more nailed down, but I let the guys play around with it. I play a little guitar and I play a little drums. I have a little more of it nailed down. John is not a player. He's a songwriter, and he'll tell you that. I'll say to my guitar players, 'Here's the chords, here's the lead line; now you go play it correctly.' "

Locally, Gee's friends with Bob Lichty of Goshen's The Minor Profits, who will open Saturday's show. The two met while Lichty worked for Crown Audio.

"I have a Crown amp, and it's because of him," Gee says. "He was in the artists' relations part or he knew somebody in the artists' relations part. We started a relationship, and I went up and begged and pleaded and got down on the floor crying for a Crown amp, and they finally said OK to get me out of there."

Born in Louisville, Ky., but a resident of Indianapolis since infancy, Gee played trombone and drums before switching to bass at 15 or 16 years old.

A few years later, someone asked Gee if he could play bass. The teenager said yes without ever having touched a bass.

"I stayed at that guy's house for a week, and on Friday and Saturday, I went onstage," he says. "I'm not saying I learned bass in a week, and I didn't, and I'm sure it was awful, but I loved the whole rush of it and the whole low end of it. … I'm sure it was awful, but I loved it and I still do."